Exclusive: Explosions in the Sky’s First Video Is a Space-Tripping Wonder

After more than a decade of intricate instrumental rock epics, Explosions in the Sky finally enters the viral visual stream with the video for the band’s new song “Last Known Surroundings,” exclusively premiered above.

“In the 12 years that we have been playing together, we’ve never made or released a video for any of our songs,” the Austin, Texas, band said in an e-mail to Wired.com. “For this new album, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, we decided to reach out to some talented people and see if we could get something made to order, and the first ‘official’ video from us is now ready to show.”

The result is more than eight hypnotic minutes of geometric mapping, pulsating landscapes and deep-space sojourns, courtesy of the band’s “close friends” at Austin design studio Ptarmak. Featuring illustration from Sissy Emmons and animation from David Hobizal, Ptarmak’s video for “Last Known Surroundings” comes off like a celestial lovechild of the original Tron, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Japanese art.

“It took them months and months of solid work,” said the band. “And we couldn’t be more pleased with their finished product.” Other artists who worked on the video include JR Crosby, Luke Miller, Zach Ferguson, Ben Hansen, Christy Carroll, Annie Mayfield and Josh Johnson (who worked on 3-D).

As late as Explosions in the Sky‘s first official video may seem, it’s just the beginning of the official audiovisual experimentation to come.

“We intend to get a few more videos made by some other friends and filmmakers over the next few months,” the band said. “Over the years, many fans have taken it upon themselves to do us the favor and put something together and post it to YouTube and, believe it or not, we have seen a great deal of them and have enjoyed almost all of them.”

The band hits the road for a fall tour starting Sept. 1 in Arizona and wrapping Oct. 13 in Oklahoma. Until then, check out “Last Known Surroundings” above and let us know in the comments section below if the band’s first official video was worth the wait.